Seeded Sourdough Loaf from Homebaker's club and the art of breadbaking

 I've been practicing 'The Art of Breadmaking' for some time, in fact years, and there is always something for the home baker to learn.  For a few months now I have been a member of The Homebaker's club following all the detailed on line classes from my bread hero Jack Sturgess. Recently I attempted the Seeded Sourdough Loaf.

Without watching the class, without reading the recipe properly, without working the timings correctly and not putting the dough to rise overnight in the fridge, I hadn't grasped some of the finer points.  Let alone not having a Dutch oven to use, with the ratios mixed up giving a much higher amount of wholemeal flour, we still ended up enjoying a very good loaf. 

Take two: I watched the lesson from start to finish, and because of my having made the loaf albeit not understanding the finer points, the second attempt took account of all of these and most probably these have sunk into my mind and can also be transferred to other sourdough bread making sessions.

I learnt that by rising the dough overnight in the fridge, it makes it possible to bake good bread in the morning, and the Dutch Oven technique although rather good, I am satisfied with the good round shape from baking on a pre heated Silverwood baking tray.  I was not waiting up late to bake the bread, or having to leave the bread to cool overnight.  There was no tearing or any weak points, and the dough opened up nicely along the score lines.

The only thing I did differently was that I did not add the seeds to the outside, as with the poppy seed rye loaves I have made, I wanted to spare all the bits on the worktop and floor from the bits that fall off as the bread is cut.  There are of course plenty of delicious seeds in the dough.

Bread making tools came to my drawing class, again lots of lessons learnt during my first drawing class. As with bread making lots of practice and attempts will be required to get any better.

Pumpkin Soup

 I last made this soup for our book club, and had frozen half of the roasted pumpkin.  I'm using up stuff from the freezer and it was easy to turn and remake the soup, since I had printed out the recipe and it was floating around the kitchen drawer. 

This is before the Spiced Pumpkin and coconut soup has been whizzed and had the coconut added. I'm simply posting this here as I find it easy to use my own blog as a repository for when I have pumpkins to use up. 

Soup is one of those lunches that are so easy, and just right for a coolish day like today.  This week's daily loaf is a sourdough seeded half wholemeal loaf which will suit this very well.

Sourdough each week

 Each week or every six to nine days I bake two or three loaves of bread. One for now the rest for the freezer to be brought out later in the week.  The routine is well established now and fits in nicely with a day at home.  Each part of the process only takes a few minutes and very often the loaves are baked either before or after our evening meal, which on that day also uses the oven.

Although I have baked plenty of bread using 'naked' baskets, I now find that using the cloth liners that came with the small baskets, and a piece of drapey muslin for the longer basket works really well.  The baskets are allowed to stand draped with another large tea towel, so that the loaves underneath develop a skin.  This then remains intact when turned out, ready to have the slashes which allows the confined dough to expand in the oven, as they hit the heat but have the steam from the roasting dish below keep the outskin moist and flexible for a few minutes.

Very often recipes are adjusted using a blend of different flours, in these for instance I exchanged strong wholemeal flour for wholemeal spelt and a couple of handfuls of mixed seeds which I had soaked for a few hours.  Last week a couple of friends came over, and I decided to make a 'posh tea', starting off with sandwiches made from sourdough baked in standard loaf tins. Alison was so surprised by sourdough with mild flavour and softness of the crust and crumb and declared that they were the best she had tasted.  She had only had sourdough bread with hard crusts and big holes before. I explained that yes that I made that type to start with, but we prefer our bread softer, with more flavour from the special wheats, and with other ingredients too such as milk and eggs, and also make 'sweet sourdoughs' too.  It was goat's cheese and smoked salmon and a variety including cucumber and cheese, and softe cheese, and thinly sliced tomato all with fresh chives from the garden, and garnished with pea shoots from my pots.

My tin of choice for this are Silverwood tins and now know the weight of dough needed to get the rise above the rim which is to my liking. For Soudough the rounded corners work better for me compared to my tins with square sharp corners, but I keep those for cake or yeasted loaves.

Other loaves of course are baked, non sourdough, and often buns. I love the rhythm of the hand needing and the wonderful aromas of the dough and baking.

Apricot and Pecan Sourdough

 Having had this loaf on day two toasted for breakfast this morning, and it being just perfect fresh on the following morning after baking, I thought I would write a post about this loaf.  Firstly so that I can retrieve it from my blog for use again, and also it may inspire you to try something very much like it.

I have been reading 'Healthy Baking' by Jordan Bourke, and have followed his techniques more or less.  This require a 'very active starter', which I refreshed twice on the day before baking.  Here it was refreshed with equal weights strong white and tap water.  I tend to refresh my starter in slightly larger quantities.  However to arrive at the 225g for the recipe, the following is a guide.

Morning Day 1: 15g sourdough starter fairly fresh from the fridge (perhaps refreshed a couple of days previously), add 15g each water and strong white flour, and 5g brown sugar.  Evening Day 1 add 40g each water and strong white flour, and 5g brown sugar. Each time leave on the counter in your kitchen.

Morning Day 2:

225g of your now very active starter

300ml water from the tap

40g brown sugar

Mix these together, don't worry about any lumps.

In a separate larger bowl mix the following:

40g white rye or you can use stoneground wholemeal rye

100g wholemeal spelt

325g Strong While Flour

12g salt

Mix all these together, and add the wet mixture, mix using your scraper till all the dry bits are incorporated.

Leave for an hour

50g dried apricots, cut up and soaked in a warm water, whilst the dough is resting.

50g pecan gently roasted for a few minutes

1 to 2 teaspoons fennel seeds roasted mixed with the pecans.  

..watch carefully, you don't want scorched nuts! Break up into smallish pieces.

As they are cooling, crush the fennel in a pestle and mortar, leaving a few seeds visible. 

Drain off the apricots, and take the dough out the bowl, incorporate the nuts, spices and apricots. You can lightly knead, but the idea is that you will be doing some stretches either in the bowl or as I prefer, to do this on an oiled worksurface.  This adds a little oil to the dough each time you stretch and helps to make for a less hard crust.  Repeat the stretches about four times, when you will see the dough gradually gains strength. There are loads of help on the internet such as  Bake with Jack .

Leave to prove, the length of time depends on many factors, I find about five hours is about right. Divide as you wish, stretch and shape a round, leave fifteen minutes or so covered, then shape as appropriate for your tin or banneton. 

I had a 500g and a 750g banneton.  Tins are easier and quite as good.  

I bake at 200C Fan Oven with a tin in the bottom to which I add boiling water just as the door is shut with the loaves in the oven. It takes about 35 to 40 minutes depending on the size of your loaves.  Remove from oven and tins/baking sheets, banneton , and cool on a rack. One loaf goes into the freezer.

The nuts and fruit can be varied depending on what you may already have in your larder.

I am going to make my stuffing balls for Christmas with this bread...

Excellent used as a basis for Eggy Bread, or bread and butter pudding. As it is not a 'Sweet Loaf', it also goes very well with Chees or Pate and chutney.

Inspired by Jordan Bourke's Fig, Almond and Cinnamon Sourdough

When I last visited the library my interest was peaked by a book entitled 'Health Baking', and a quick flip through let me know that this book ought to come home for a lengthier perusal. 

I have out at the moment Vanessa Kimbell's School Sweet Baking, but for my current mood am finding that a little too intense.  Jordan Bourke's Healthy Baking is more to my taste and has some delicious looking ferments and ways to use whole grains in mixed dishes with vegetables.  

Using just a few of the delicious dried figs, which I almost always have in stock, as well as some whole almonds on my open shelves, the Fig, Almond and Cinnamon Sourdough recipe is the first recipe I am baking from Jordan Bourke's book 'Healthy Eating'.  I followed  the recipe except I omitted the cinnamon and in its place used some crushed cardamom seeds.

I also halved the dough to make two 500g sized loaves.  Made with a mixture of white and whole grained spelt, it makes a delicious breakfast bread which we had fresh the first day and toasted this morning.  There is only a slight sweetness so this bread also goes very well with cheeses. 

From his website I found this Panfried Chickpea Fritter recipe which will be on the supper menu in the coming days. 

Swiss Dark Flour in a Sourdough Loaf Tin

 It is ages since I wrote about using the Swiss Dark Flour from Shipton Mill. As another bag was added to the last order, I thought I ought to get baking with it.  The quantities just fill the two Silverwood 1lb loaf tins, which are larger than similar named ones by other companies.

My refreshed starter was bubbling and vibrant and made from 80g each of healthy mother, with 80g each of White Strong Flour and water, left to bubble overnight.

The remainder of 400g Strong White Bread Flour, and 150g Swiss Dark Flour, 320g water initially, plus a little more for wetting hands, worksurface etc. and 10g salt.  I follow the kneading, and the stretch and rest methods as for Sourdough baking.  This is a version of 'Mighty White'. 

 Another time I will use equal proportions of white and swiss dark flour for a more robust loaf.

Sourdough Flax Prairie Bread revisited

 It has been a while since I last made this loaf.  This time I scaled up the quantities to made two loaves in my Silverwood 500g tins.  These tins are great to bake bread in, but they are not 500g tins! Having measured the volume of a number of bread pans, I found that 700g made up sourdough is about right.

All the seeds for the recipe were ground and added to the flour.  However I thought adding some seeds as a coating to the inside of the tin would be fun.  However they tend to fall off, quite nice for the birds who will have all the dustings.  They had a 13hr cold rise in the conservatory.  Next time, I shall just leave them overnight on the kitchen counter to rise during the winter.  This makes a lovely loaf, and whilst the seed is still in date, I shall bake these for a few weeks in succession.  Looking back on a previous post, I found that I had made some of the dough into fruited breakfast buns, and intend to try that again next week.

Beyond 'standard' Babkas thanks to all those who inspire me

 I love the way that keeping in contact and sharing can widen one's horizons, and encourage one to step outside our comfort zones.  For several years I have been baking yeast doughs, then about ten years ago I got into sourdough. I love all types of yeast dough, having used fresh, dried, and wild yeasts.  Way back I met and became great friends with Vicki who used to bake for her artisan stall at Southwold, then I taught my friend Marie-Claire in Kenilworth to bake bread and to make preserves, then also in Kenilworth my friend Mandy who loves experimenting in the kitchen too, have all helped me enjoy and share my kitchen adventures.

Vickie introduced me to Bertinet, and various other great bakers and writers, on whose courses she had been on.  I am completely self taught, and enjoy absorbing and practicing techniques at home. Marie-Claire introduced me to Bake with Jack, and I have been following and enjoyed learning from him via his YouTube videos and blogs, and  Mandy suggested that I may find  Sourdough Bakers on Facebook, whose name has morphed to Wild Sourdough UK and Beyond, interesting.  

Last week after reading Joe Parke's details of his Babka on WSUB, I felt it was time for me to attempt a sweetened enriched sourdough.  

At the same time I wanted to try a 'filling' which Marie-Claire has used in some of her 'Chelsea Buns'.  So thanks to Marie-Claire, Mandy, and Joe Parke, my first Sourdough Babka is quite a success.  

The amusing thing is that I was completely unaware that Babka's had featured on GBBO recently.  It was  Marie-Claire who enlightened me after I emailed her with the Babka pictures as attachments with my rating of the filling she had sent me.  Now I understand the subtext to some of the comments on Joe Parke's post.  Joe is a professional working at Star Bistro, which is currently not open.  What a smashing place this looks, I wish them well and hope they open and are well supported as soon as safely possible.  With it not far from Cheltenham, I can just see that it would be lovely for Mr S and I to have a break in that area and drop in for a few meals at the Star Bistro.

Joe suggested I look up 'The Perfect Loaf'.  I happened on their post on how to make Ricotta, so out came the litre of raw buffalo milk from the freezer, and I have a cheese for a Pizza Blonde, another suggestion by an internet gardening friend Brian. The Whey is going in the dough, and also lunch time soup!

 Pizza Blonde about to go in the oven

Dinner is served!

In a Vase on Monday - Busy doing other things

 I'm later than usual: I've been busy doing other things.  Here is the quick arrangement of items I had picked yesterday. I am sure lots of others will have joined Cathy already. I've had a peep at Cathy's arrangement and I am charmed by her little prop this week.

On Sunday, Mr S came out really to start me off, on cutting back the variegated ivy growing on the side fence.   There was so much to cut back, just to make more room to move along the narrow path,   The Ivy had matured and sent up flowering stems, mainly on the sunny outer side.  Those have been left for the bees, and later no doubt the berries will be much needed winter food for the birds.  On the shady side they still have to be cut off so are the mainstay of the arrangement this week. White Solanum laxum album, and purple Salvia amistad complete the vase.  After posing here in the low autumn sun, they were made into a posy with raffia, and passed to one of our NHS heroes who lives in our close.

This morning I cycled into town to do our shopping,  when I had to complain to three people leaning across me in the supermarket, which made me hot and bothered. Its not as if there were many people, or that there was no room, surely if people are so hurried, they could ask one to move!

On a more successful note  I have been working on my first Sweet enriched sourdough.  Including the overnight fridge rest, these have taken about 42 hours from start to finish, and as I write this these beauties are on the cooling rack. Two different babkas one with date, orange and sesame seeds, and the other walnuts and spices, both with butter and sugar.  The little buns are samples!

Off now to have a cuppa and a sample.  

Very Hot today so baked sourdough yesterday

Its all in the planning....

Fine tune techniques and then triple the recipe.  When I first baked this recipe a couple of years ago, I had a tear along the bottom and a hole near the top.  Last week I  baked two loaves.  Compared to when I first made these,  I now have the turning out of the basket , slashing and baking under my belt.  I've found it very useful to bake the same recipe about three times on the trot as this way I get to make small improvements.  I once read that the water in which potatoes have been boiled is worth using in bread...this batch contained the previous day's wate which was kept overnight in the fridge.  Maybe it is the Vitamin C which helps the dough development.

By tripling the ingredients, you get three times the deliciousness of Sourdough, and only have to put the oven on once.  One for now, and two for the freezer.  Three different sizes....

Yesterday's bake was Sourdough Kamut Bread from Perfecting Sourdough by Jane Mason.  Sadly the book is no longer in print, If you find the 2016 book; ISBN 978-1-84543-650-6 in some second hand book shop, and are keen to Perfect your Sourdough, do get it.  I can't believe the prices on the net, but some charity shop or other place may have them at cost or less.

Sourdough rules OK

Yes Sourdough still continues to be a bread of choice.  However when I am busy, and have my creative efforts concentrated in other directions, I opt for easier solutions, such as using loaf tins.  I have gone back to using my Silverwood Baking tins.  I add between 650g and 700g dough, with one slice being perfect for a portion.

Another time saver is reducing or even cutting out 'messy' toppings which are apt to fall off and means saving on more Kitchen Floor washing than I have time for.  Here all the flax for Sourdough Flax Prairie Bread was ground and added with the flour.  Not quite as pretty a loaf, but wonderfully tasting nonetheless.

Last night, these two loaves came out of the oven more or less at bedtime, so they cooled off on the rack covered in linen.

This morning, this loaf was perfectly fresh and tasty for our boiled egg breakfast.

Sourdough mastered

Its been a interesting journey, and I've picked up tips all along the way.  Learnt about nutrition and patience, and this has kept me out of trouble.  

Baked today best half wholemeal wheat 80% hydration sourdough

Last week pumpkin and spelt sourdough

Earlier this week Finish Rye

Does that mean I will no longer borrow or buy books on sourdough?  There must be more to learn, surely?

Thanks to Jane Mason, Venessa Kimbell, Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, Dan Lepard, Andrew Whitley, Tess Lister, Richard Bertinet and more!!!

Sourdough Butternut Squash, Turmeric and Black Sesame Bread

I have long been a fan of Dan Lepard.  As well as his book: Short and Sweet, I also have The Handmade Loaf which I bought back in 2006.  He recently posted on Facebook about a sourdough Pumpkin, turmeric and black sesame loaf which he was making for a Charity Event in Australia.  Alas I cannot find the recipe....but having spent nearly two years working my way through  Jane Mason's Perfecting Sourdough, I drew on my inner bread baker, and went for it.

Since I have no pumpkin, I baked a butternut squash till soft...and used 300 g of that, having blitzed it first. As I went along I made sure to write the quantities in my recipe book.  The loaves were slower to rise than I had anticipated, most probably because at last it is a little cooler.  The loaves seemed just about ready to bake, so they went into the fridge, while the dinner was being roasted.  The first loaf to go into the oven was the long one, just before we sat down to eat.  I didn't have time to egg wash this one.  

For the second batch, I had time to add  an egg glaze and sprinkle of black sesame seeds. 

We cut into the loaf today at lunchtime...absolutely delicious!

I used a mixture of wholewheat flour, Kamut flour, and white...with 50g pumpkin seeds which I soaked overnight, and just one teaspoon of turmeric.  The flavour is wonderful...can't wait  for pumpkin to be in season again.  In the meantime Butternut Squash works very well.

It was a little tricky getting the dough to leave the baskets.  I follow Karen's Kitchen Stories, dipping in, and learning new techniques.  I was interested to hear her describe using plastic proving baskets, where you can spray it with oil which helps to release the the dough.  I may investigate this further.

Cranberry and Nut sourdough Loaf

This is one the December 2017 baking challenges from Jane Mason's Book: Perfecting Sourdough.

I doubled up on the bulk fermentation ingredients, then make half with dried cranberries and pecan nuts, and the second one with hazelnuts and raisins.  For the flours I used a mix of half and half white strong wheat, and creamy spelt.

As always the nuts were first baked a little in the oven till smelling and light golden, then with the fruit they were soaked in some of the liquid overnight, whilst the sourdough from the fridge had its overnight refresh.

These loaves took a very long time to rise, most probably because it was so cool.  They are meant to rise in proving baskets, but I felt more confident using tins for this dough.

They were shaped up and put into tins around 15:30 on Saturday, and by 18:00 still were not ready, so they went into the very cool conservatory for an overnight 'refrigerated' rise...but at 6:00 am they still were not high enough in the tin.  Having been brought them back into the kitchen then, and having been given a boost by sitting on top of the cooling toaster from breakfast, they finally went into the oven at about 11:00 am.

The Cranberry and Pecan Nut loaf is now in the freezer, and will come out for Christmas morning breakfast...but I could not resist cutting into the hazelnut and raisin loaf:

The flavour is topnotch, with hazelnuts warm and mellow, and the raisins soft and tangy in contrast..spread with a little butter and thick honey, then have made a tasty snack with Sunday afternoon tea.

Pumpernickel Rye from Perfecting Sourdough

For this loaf, I used regular wholemeal rye flour as an alternative to the coarsely ground specialist rye pumpernickel flour.  As Mr S has definitely said that he did not want any more caraway seed, I substituted this for fennel seeds.  I followed Jane Mason's recipe from #Perfecting Sourdough where she recommends soaking the seeds overnight in some water.  To give this loaf a little texture, in the soaking water I added some rye berry flakes and a handful of pumpkin seeds.

The dough was rather sticky so kneaded it in the mixing bowl, which worked rather well.  This is probably the sort of dough which, had I had a table top mixer, would have preferred to mix this in a machine.

Looking at the size of the dough, I felt that my standard 500g loaf tins would have been a little small, so opted to use the Silverwood tin, which in my opinion needs about 750g to 800g dough.  As I have been finding turning out long proving baked sourdoughs from steel tins a little tricky recently, I also lined the tin with some baking parchment, as well as buttering it.  This worked rather well.

With molasses in the dough, it is obvious that the finished loaf would be on the dark side, but I think this time the loaf was a little overbaked.  I should have noted this as the loaf was well shrunk from the sides by the end of the baking time. Not to worry, it is getting softer since it has cooled, and given that sourdough bread is probably best kept for a day or two before cutting, there will be a good flavour.

I think the Silverwood tins transfer the heat very efficiently compared to my black heavy non stick tins, and next time will omit placing then on a preheated baking tray.  I usually bake tins on on preheated baking tray which helps the bottom of the loaves bake well.

Basic Sourdough Batter Bread

Again another bake from Perfecting Sourdough.  From its title you would expect this to be a ...basic...bread.  Well it didn't turn out that way, I would describe it as 'a tea loaf the sourdough way'  With the following ingredients:

65g wheat sourdough starter
345g white spelt
65g water
100g cold pressed rapeseed oil
100g sugar
120g milk
1 egg
3/4 tsp baking powder

Like another member of the Facebook group, I felt with the sweetness it cried out for some fruit.  I added a couple of my small fistfuls of raisins.

I chose to line the tin with baking parchment, as it was loose bottomed, and with the long rise to the batter, I wondered whether it would ooze out of the bottom otherwise.  There is no kneading at all with this one, and therefore the texture was definitely cake like, more so since spelt has that soft melty mouth feel even in a well kneaded loaf.

My first taste left me a little underwhelmed.  I thought it would be much more tangy with all the long standing...it took somewhere around five hours rather than the three suggested, even though my refreshed starter was almost jumping out of the bowl in the morning.

However on the following day, sliced with butter and jam, it was rather good.  I froze half the loaf, and have had a piece on day 2, 3, and four, when it is still a lovely treat with a drink of coffee.  It has grown on me.  I think next time I may add some spice, and other items, and making this loaf has given me the confidence to try variations of this 'sourdough tea loaf'.

Mixed Grain Bread the Sourdough Way

Another wonderful smelling bake from this month's challenge:  Mixed Grain Bread.  With white and wholemeal spelt, and white flour, honey,  fennel and caraway, and a very lively sourdough starter, these loaves are sure to taste nice.

However...I doubled on the recipe, but I think I put a little too much dough in the larger tin, and also I think they were about 20 minutes over proven.  Its warm and humid today, so setting the timer for a final two hour rise, and going off to do something else, was bound to lead to  'I wish I had gone to check sooner feeling'! 

Although on the recipe it gives a 500g bread tin as the container, the picture facing shows some little loaves cooling, so this is why there are three smaller loaves and a large one.  Next time I shall make dough for four small tins and the larger one.

I played at filling all my different tins with water this morning, and weighing them, and then calculating how much dough each one should hold.  Now I have a formula for working out the correct amount of ingredients to give the dough weights I need.  Well I have to put to good use all those maths lessons!!!!!

Sourdough Pizza Base

This is one of our bakes for July from Jane Mason's Book: Perfecting Sourdough.  I had been refreshing my wheat sourdough ready for a couple of white loaves...and had enough to start off the mix yesterday morning.

The recipe says mix 60g wheat sourdough, 140g white wheat flour, 1 tbsp fine semolina, 90g water, 3 g salt, just mix and leave to rest for 12 - 24 hrs. All you then need is some olive oil for dressing, and an assortment of toppings.   Just how easy can it get?  I had planned to make the pizza for lunch today...but once one has Pizza on one's mind, I could find no further inspiration for supper.

Having roasted two large pointed red peppers, in the 'dying embers' of the oven's heat from the sourdough loavews, there was no accommodating the 12 hrs wait.  Four hours short, the dough was dressed with pesto, all the red peppers, red onions and garlic which had not long come out of the oven, with a large gloriously soft and juicy Laverstoke Park Farm Buffalo mozarella which I had bought that morning, torn and spaced oven the top.

With oven set at its highest setting...it wasn't long before supper was ready

I felt this beauty needed to dress for dinner...with some green basil torn from the Kitchen windowsill herb.

I'm already thinking of alternative toppings.....

Finnish Rye again.....

When a baking friend posed the question: This is my refreshed starter including the water, rye flour and wheat flour. Does it look the right consistency?  I offered to bake the loaf and take lots of pictures.  I do hope this helps Angela...and it got me thinking carefully through each of the stages which makes up this loaf.

I have now made this recipe more than half a dozen times...it is a pure sourdough loaf, but it has no intermediate bulk rising, and gives a very nice even crumb.    If you want to see what I have posted previously: do go to Finnish Rye and Finnish Rye Again.  During cooler months, I have allowed the dough to rise in the tin at ambient kitchen temps, but as it is now rather warm...ambient day temperature 24 C, I prefer to do the rise during the day when I can keep my eye on the loaf.

For my personal taste I now half the amount of malt syrup, and have used honey this time.

This is the rye sourdough just removed from the fridge at about 9 pm.

I start by weighing into my bowl 25g whole rye flour

Then I weighed in 35g wholewheat spelt

followed by 30g water at room temperature

and finally 35g of the rye sourdough starter from the fridge

when it was mixed up this is what it looked like, before being covered with its shower cap, and left overnight on the kitchen worktop.  It looks just the same as Angela's mixture.

In the morning it was nicely puffed up

On top goes 75g of rye flour

 Then 150g strong white flour

 Then 6g salt

And finally 100g milk, 50g water, and 30g honey

Then I mix it all up by hand in the bowl

It is a fairly sticky dough, most rye flours result in a sticky dough...but no more flour please.  I use my trusty scraper to bring bits off the work surface and into the dough ball at regular intervals during kneading.  This is what it looks like after ten minutes....

I know my 1 lb tins work very well with 500g standard dough or a little more sourdough up to about 550g.  Just to compare with other tins...this tin holds 750g water.  I usually weigh the water held by different tins so that I can scale off the right amount for different tins. By scaling up the amounts in recipes I am able bake more than one loaf using different sized tins.  For example for a tin which holds 1000g water I use 1000 / 750 x 550 = 730g of dough.

Because my tins are a little old..I find I need to grease them very well for these long rise loaves..I use butter and a little layer of rye flakes, and the loaves comes out nicely. I would recommend preparing them before you start to knead, as it is handy to have them ready to pop the dough in, and not have to keep washing one's hands.

Using wet hands, which Jane Mason recommends, makes shaping the dough a breeze..and it is ready to roll in some flakes.  This is not in the recipe but I find it really helps with my tins.

The dough is now in the tin...and will sit rising under its shower cap.

Its just ten minutes to go before the first of the three hours are up...the dough has a long way to go, so I set the timer for another hour, and also another two hours.  I've had this timer for over ten years...and it is an absolute must for me, as I am usually doing several things at any time.  I was sorry to read that Salter have changed their design.  If I needed to get another one I have found one which looks almost exactly the same!

It took six hours rising to get the level of rise I was expecting

The oven was preheated to 230 C, with a baking tray to put the tin onto.  I find this bakes the bottom of the loaf nicely.  After 10 minutes I reduced the temp to 190 C as it is a fan oven.  After 20 minutes, rather than the 30 minutes given in the recipe, the loaf looked cooked.  Usually I find the timings about right, but there may be up to four loaves in the oven...this time there was just the one.  To check if the loaf was baked fully, I used the thermapen: 95 C...and yes, the loaf felt right.  From the amount of oven spring, I think another half an hour rise would have been OK.

Going through the notes made during previous bakes of this recipe, and comparing it with this run through, I realise that with sourdough there can be so many factors leading to variations...usually time variations.  So judgement based on experience is the best guidance, and allowing plenty of time is of the essence!